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The play "The Crucible" based on the witchcraft trials of 1692 by Arthur Miller and the era of McCarthyism in the 1950 's are similar in the sense of how power was used by characters of each event. The characters in both eras had a similar task in each of their roles. Abigail and Joseph McCarthy represented the evil who wanted fame and power, Hail and Dwight Eisenhower were the ones that didn't use their powers to support evil, they just merely did what was right, and John Proctor and Edward Marrow were the respected who used their power for good. Even though the eras were in different time periods they were both similar because both events showed a decisive appetite for power. As the evils in both eras, Joseph McCarthy and Abigail played similar roles to gain power and ultimately lose it. Joseph McCarthy was an unknown man through out his life, until his role as a Senator accused people of communism actions lead him to gain power.
He struggled his way up to the top ruthlessly and aggressively by criticizing his challengers with lies. When he decided to run again he wanted a secure win so his advisors and him came up with an idea to campaign against communism, which was to bring public support because of the Korean War. His ideas lead to creating a list of people in which to accuse, and for the next several years he made people lose their jobs. Eventually people realized that he was making up his own lies to gain power and gain more popularity. Becoming hypocritical he lost his power, which Dwight Eisenhower, a supporter, took away. In the end he disappeared and later killed himself.
Similar to McCarthy was Abigail who lost her power just as she had gained it. As a struggle to gain her love, she began to believe she had met the devil to gain some power of fear over the people. Her love for power tilted her to accuse his loves wife to keep it for herself. Abusing this power and taking it to far led her to make up more and more lies about other people interacting with the devil that in the end when there was to be no devil, she lost her powers by her own allies who believed in her. In both eras the acknowledgement for power by these two people brought them to want more ultimately leading into their loss of power that would both bring them to the very end of their lives.
This shows how both characters abused their powers and ultimately lost it. As evil power there is also a good power, in this case Edward Murrow and John Proctor. Murrow was a respected journalist who hosted a show called "See It Now", where he had significant people interviewed. During this time Murrow was increasingly getting upset because of the nonsense McCarthyism was doing to the nations people. He became angry with Joseph McCarthy when his friend George Marshal was accused of communist relations. He himself regarded Marshall as "the Greatest Living American." Finally when McCarthy accused his friend Larry Dugan who committed suicide for refusing to name people he had associated, Murrow used his television show as a way to criticize McCarthy.
And after the night of the show it caught the nations attention and people began to question McCarthyism. Someone similar was John Proctor from "The Crucible" where he played as a respected and good person in the town. The love of a girl for John Proctor sparked controversy that she had met with the devil. Even though this sounded like non-sense the people where astonished and began to believe in it. John Proctor believed non-sense and was a man who had troubles with his wife brought only good to the town.
Angered by the fact that Abigail the girl who wanted him accused of witchcraft on his wife made John Proctor to admit lechery to save his wife. He confessed that Abigail was lying and took it to his death to defend it. After his death Abigail realized she had lost power for which she wanted it for and ultimately led to her disappearance and loss of respect of others. This conclude that both characters in both eras represented the good power which lead later to destroy evil.
Respected and looked up to, Dwight Eisenhower and Hale, played similar roles from both eras. Dwight Eisenhower was the president at the time at first was an important supporter of McCarthyism. With such respected person in support it drew the people to look up to him and follow his thoughts. But as time went on Eisenhower began to doubt McCarthyism and when Macarthur attacked the Unites States Army's Generals, Eisenhower became furious and began to criticize Macarthur. With Macarthur losing his supporters he swallowed up his lies and realized there was nothing to do but to disappear.
This shows how he looked out for peoples best interest and when he realized it wasn't he attacked it. This is also similar with the character Hail in "The Crucible" where he is seen as the respected one that looks out for the people's best interest. He began believing the stories Abigail was telling and supported it. As he realized that nothing made sense and it began to look like lies, he immediately began contradicting it. Unable to stop it because he was not any major power all he could do was attack it. His transition from one belief to the other signifies his good power to protect the people just as Eisenhower did.
These to Characters represent the neutral and only looked out to the best of the people. The McCarthy era and "The Crucible" show various similarities in the roles of the characters from each event. Even though both events were from totally separate time periods both eras had various similarities in which may not have been seen before. In each similarity the usage of power is similar and can be said to result in the same conclusion each era had.
The significance of power in these plays can conclude that both eras had the same impact on its outcome.
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